No longer a ‘quiet zone’: Train whistles howling again on South Bend’s east side

SOUTH BEND — After years of relative silence, residents living near the Grand Trunk Western Railroad line on the city’s east side are hearing train whistles again.

The Grand Trunk Western — a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway — began using locomotive horns this past weekend along the stretch of railroad between Greenlawn Avenue to the west and Logan Street to the east. The railway says it learned of “non-compliance” with Federal Railroad Administration safety standards at several crossings.

“We take this step as a matter of public safety,” Canadian National Railway spokesperson Patrick Waldron said Monday.

South Bend has been a “quiet zone” going back nearly 50 years. But in 2005, the railroad administration preempted local train-whistle bans and required communities to meet new safety standards. The city was again certified as a quiet zone in 2007. But last month, Waldron said, the railroad administration informed Canadian National of the non-compliance cases in South Bend. Read more of the original article.